But, airlines did not have to pay some humongous fee before deregulation in order to take over existing slots at airports (or routes, or whatever). It is not an equivalent comparison. Barkley Rosser On Fri, 15 May 1998 12:37:46 -0400 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Nathan Newman wrote:
>
> >Given the $250,000 cost of a cabbie medalion, it is not clear to me that
> >eliminating that monopoly barrier to entry into the cab business is the worst
> >thing in the world for workers. Yes, more cabs will depress revenues, but if
> >cabbies don't have to spend half their time paying the mortgage for their
> >leased
> >medalions on top of the cost of the cab itself, might they not come out ahead?
> >
> >What are the economics of this for cabbies? If a guy with a $4000 used
> >car can
> >enter the marketplace, won't that be better for a lot of these folks than
> >automatically having to slave for someone else who can afford the $250,000
> >medalion?
>
> C'mon, you know the answer to this. Letting in more players with such a low
> barrier to entry will intensify competition and lower wages. Just look at
> the U.S. airline industry after dereg.
>
> Doug
>
>
>
-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu